Parking 2.0

I’ve previously blogged about the delightful, temporary conversion of parking spaces into parks. PARK(ing) Day 2007 has a call to action - you too can take the “ing” out of parking! I absolutely agree with the organizer’s assertion that:

Around the nation, inexpensive curbside parking results in increased traffic, wasted fuel, and more pollution. It’s time to rethink the way streets are used!

Making a parking space into a park is one way of rethinking. Another is charging the fair market price for parking spaces. Many (most?) cities charge too little for their parking - citizens should be outraged at this wasteful subsidy to automobile drivers. Thus, I join the call to rise up and protest wasteful parking management practices!

Steven Landsburg has a great, short piece in Slate entitled Why parking your car is more environmentally destructive than driving it. He discusses something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently - the various costs to society of poor parking management practices, and the potential benefits to be derived from improving those practices. For instance, what is the difference in terms of revenue generation, job creation, and quality of life improvements between devoting approximately 350 square feet of land to provide one parking space versus devoting that land to retail space, office space, housing space, or park space? I’ve not done the math, but I’m guessing Steve Landsburg will be doing it in his new book, and I’m guessing that the parking use will come out dead last! Have you seen any analysis of this type? If so, please post a link in the comments.

An article entitled Sustainable Parking Structure Will Have Santa Monica Motorists Seeing Green in the LookOut News describes a new parking structure with seemingly impecable environmental credentials. I’m certainly impressed by its features including “photovoltaic roof panels, a storm drain water treatment system, recycled construction materials and energy efficient mechanical systems”. As noted, this may be the nation’s first LEED certified garage - its about time!

I don’t mean to rain on the parade, but I’m less impressed with some other aspects of this project. For starters, the garage has “sweeping city and ocean views” - why in the world was it not built with residential and/or office space around the outside of the structure?! A garage with great views is a wasted opportunity. Santa Monica residents should hold their politicians accountable for wasting these valuable views on such a low-value use as parking.

The cost of the project also seems way too high - even after subtracting the $1.5mil solar system from the $29mil project cost, you are still left with a per parking space cost of over $31,000! Some underground garages, which typically incur the highest construction costs, are built for a per-space price less than that - and they leave the valuable airspace above for higher value development. It is unfortunate that this, the first LEED certified garage, will suggest to the parking industry that environmentally-friendly garages cost much more - I’m guessing that this project will actually do more harm than good when it comes to encouraging the parking garage industry to become more sustainable.

Also noted in the article is a $180mil plan to add 1,712 parking spaces to downtown. While I’m sure this number includes a lot of parking structure rehabilitation, and probably construction of non-parking components like the ground floor retail in this garage, $105,000 each to add parking spaces seems WAY too high a price to pay. I’d imagine that money could be much more effectively spent on Transportation Demand Management efforts to reduce parking demand, rather than on increasing parking supply.

Criticisms aside, I’m excited to see sustainable practices creeping into the parking industry, and I applaud Santa Monica for gathering the political will (and budget!) to make this important project a reality.

Both Boing Boing and Engadget note a pilot project in Raleigh, North Carolina. As described on the website of the firm that made the LED lighting fixtures:

Cree, Inc. and the the City of Raleigh installed Optimized Digital Lighting® lowbay fixtures designed by Lighting Science inside the Raleigh Municipal Building parking deck in December 2006. Progress Energy, Raleigh’s primary electric utility provider, says the floor equipped with LED lights uses over 40 percent less energy than the lighting system it replaced. Plus, according to Progress Energy’s research, the quality of light in the garage is greatly improved.

I can’t find anything in the publicity materials discussing pricing or ROI, so I’m not sure if larger-scale replacement of existing HID or fluorescent lighting with LED lighting in parking garages would be cost effective. However, the product literature does mention an intriguing Energy Savings Sharing Program, described on another web page:

Energy Savings Sharing ProgramSM which allows your organization to experience immediate energy savings by installing Optimized Digital Lighting solutions at no cost. The program pays for itself by sharing the monthly savings between your organization and Lighting Science over the life of the contract.

I recently had some interesting conversations with parking garage owners, managers, and developers regarding garage lighting and energy efficiency. A number of them indicated their belief that LED lighting, while more efficient than any other form, is unsuitable for parking garages due to various intensity and light “spread” issues. The trial installation in Raleigh seems to strongly suggest otherwise, and that LED lighting can actually improve parking garage light quality. Can any of you readers comment on your experience with, or knowledge of, LED lighting in parking garages?